Terms of Use

1. About these Terms

1. These terms of use ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the PolicyHQ service, including the PolicyHQ website at policyhq.co.uk, the PolicyHQ MCP server, the PolicyHQ API, and the PolicyHQ compliance dashboard (together, the "Service"), operated by PolicyHQ ("we", "us", "our").
2. By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you must not use the Service.
3. We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify registered users of material changes by email. Your continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

2. What PolicyHQ is (and is not)

1. PolicyHQ is a data retrieval and citation verification service. It provides automated access to UK case law and legislation sourced from publicly available databases, and automated verification of legal citations against those sources.
2. PolicyHQ does not provide legal advice, legal opinions, or legal services of any kind. PolicyHQ is not a law firm, solicitors' practice, or legal services provider. PolicyHQ is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board, or any other legal services regulator.
3. The information returned by PolicyHQ is sourced from third-party databases including The National Archives and legislation.gov.uk. We do not guarantee the completeness, accuracy, or currency of these sources. Primary source data may contain errors, omissions, or may not reflect the most recent amendments or judicial decisions.
4. PolicyHQ verification results (including "verified", "uncertain", "not found", and "outside coverage" statuses) are the output of an automated checking process. A "verified" status means that a citation was found in our database and that the associated content appeared consistent with the source text at the time of checking. It does not constitute a professional opinion on the legal validity, correctness, or applicability of any citation, argument, or legal proposition.
5. You must not rely on PolicyHQ as a substitute for independent legal research, professional legal judgement, or verification of legal authorities by a qualified legal professional. Solicitors, barristers, and other regulated legal professionals remain personally responsible for the accuracy of all materials they submit to courts, tribunals, and other bodies, regardless of whether PolicyHQ was used in their preparation.

3. Eligibility and registration

1. You must be at least 18 years old to use the Service.
2. To access features beyond the free tier, you must create an account by providing a valid email address and, where applicable, your firm name and SRA number. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and API keys.
3. You must not share your API key with third parties outside your organisation. Each API key is for use by the individual or organisation to which it was issued.
4. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account or API key.

4. Permitted use

1. You may use the Service to:
   • search UK case law and legislation via MCP-compatible AI assistants or direct API calls;
   • verify legal citations in documents you have authored or are authorised to review;
   • access the compliance dashboard to review query logs and verification reports associated with your account.
2. You must not:
   • use the Service to provide a competing legal data retrieval or citation verification service to third parties;
   • systematically scrape, bulk download, or redistribute the data returned by the Service;
   • attempt to reverse-engineer, decompile, or extract the underlying database, search indices, or algorithms of the Service;
   • use the Service in any manner that violates applicable law, including but not limited to the Data Protection Act 2018, the UK General Data Protection Regulation, and the Computer Misuse Act 1990;
   • exceed the usage limits associated with your plan, or attempt to circumvent rate limiting or usage controls;
   • use automated means to create multiple free accounts to circumvent usage limits;
   • use the Service to process documents containing sensitive personal data (as defined in UK GDPR Article 9) unless you have conducted a data protection impact assessment and have a lawful basis for such processing.

5. Acceptable use policy

1. The Service is intended for use by legal professionals, regulated firms, and those with a legitimate professional need to access UK legal data. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that we reasonably believe are misusing the Service.
2. You must not use the Service to assist in the drafting of documents intended to mislead a court, tribunal, or other body, or to assist in any fraudulent or unlawful activity.
3. You must not submit documents containing personal data of third parties to the verification service unless you have a lawful basis to do so and have ensured that the personal data is handled in accordance with applicable data protection law.

6. Pricing and payment

1. The Service is available in free and paid tiers as described on our pricing page. We reserve the right to change pricing with 30 days' notice to existing subscribers.
2. Paid subscriptions are billed monthly via Stripe. You authorise us to charge the payment method you provide for the applicable subscription fee.
3. You may cancel your subscription at any time. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. We do not offer refunds for partial billing periods.
4. If you exceed the usage limits of your plan, access to search and verification tools will be paused until the start of the next weekly cycle. We do not charge overage fees.

7. Intellectual property

1. The Service, including its design, software, databases, search indices, algorithms, and documentation, is owned by PolicyHQ and protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws.
2. Case law data sourced from The National Archives is made available under the Open Justice Licence. Legislation data sourced from legislation.gov.uk is made available under the Open Government Licence. Your use of this data via the Service is subject to the terms of those licences.
3. You retain ownership of all documents you submit for verification. We do not claim any intellectual property rights in your documents.

8. Data processing

1. When you use the verification tool, the text of your document is transmitted to our servers for processing. We process your document text solely for the purpose of extracting and verifying citations. We do not store the full text of your documents after processing is complete.
2. We retain query logs (the text of search queries and the citations returned) and verification reports (the citations extracted and their verification status) for the purpose of providing the compliance dashboard. These logs are retained for the duration of your account plus 12 months, unless you request earlier deletion.
3. Our full data processing practices are described in our Privacy Policy.

9. Limitation of liability

1. To the maximum extent permitted by law, PolicyHQ shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, or business opportunity, arising out of or in connection with your use of the Service.
2. Without limiting the generality of clause 9.1, PolicyHQ shall not be liable for:
   • any loss or damage arising from reliance on search results or verification outputs provided by the Service;
   • any sanctions, costs orders, disciplinary proceedings, or other consequences arising from the submission of legal documents to courts or other bodies, whether or not PolicyHQ was used in the preparation of those documents;
   • any errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the data sourced from The National Archives, legislation.gov.uk, or any other third-party source;
   • any failure of the Service to identify a hallucinated, fabricated, or inaccurate citation;
   • any interruption, suspension, or discontinuation of the Service.
3. Our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Service shall not exceed the total fees paid by you to PolicyHQ in the 12 months preceding the claim.
4. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by English law.

10. Indemnification

1. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless PolicyHQ, its officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with your use of the Service, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of any applicable law or regulation.

11. Service availability

1. We aim to maintain the availability of the Service but do not guarantee uninterrupted access. The Service may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, updates, or circumstances beyond our control.
2. We reserve the right to suspend or discontinue the Service (or any part of it) at any time with reasonable notice to registered users.
3. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account if we reasonably believe you are in breach of these Terms.

12. Governing law and jurisdiction

1. These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.
2. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

13. Contact

1. If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us at: hello@policyhq.co.uk
2. PolicyHQ, London, England.